Alberto Rubio
Bulgaria will join the Schengen Area on 31 March, Ambassador Aleksey Andreev announced during a reception yesterday to commemorate the 116th anniversary of Bulgaria’s liberation from the Ottoman Empire in March 1878.
The ambassador expressed his Government’s “deep gratitude” for the “efforts of the Spanish Presidency to reach a fair and historic agreement” that would allow Bulgaria to join the “Europe without borders” after a negotiating process that has taken 12 years to materialise.
After stressing the deep Europeanism of his country, “which has always belonged to the family of European countries”, Andreev said that “today, as a partner and ally in the EU and NATO, Bulgaria is a freer, more sovereign and prosperous country than ever before”.
In the area of bilateral relations, the ambassador said that “they have not stopped growing since the two countries established them 114 years ago“, although he added that “the last two years have seen the most active bilateral political dialogue since the beginning of this century, which demonstrates the ambition of both countries to further develop their relations”.
After reviewing the official visits of Bulgarian leaders to Spain in the last two years – including that of the country’s own president, Rumen Radev, the first in 23 years – Andreev said that “this proves that when political dialogue at the highest level is vibrant, it extends to all areas of bilateral relations”.
In this respect he stressed that economic relations also show an upward trend. “Bulgaria has long been an attractive country for Spanish investors and entrepreneurs in sectors such as renewable energy, innovation, infrastructure and many others. “But,” he added, “beyond economic ties, there are human ties that are just as important. Those that are built day by day by the hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians living in Spain, who constitute our second largest diaspora in Europe and the third largest in the world”.
“The Bulgarians living in Spain, successfully integrated, are the most valuable bridge between our two peoples and our best ambassadors,” he concluded.
The reception was attended by numerous ambassadors accredited in Spain, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the Director General of Protocol, María Sebastián de Erice; the Director General of Western, Central and Southeast Europe, Raquel Gómez-Cambronero; and the new deputy director general of EU Countries, Cristina Borreguero. Also present was Miguel Alonso Berrio, who was recently named the new ambassador of Spain in Bulgaria.
